Conventional wire harness attaching units requires taping for binding the wires together. Taping also binds clips or retainers to the harness. Taping flat wire harnesses requires more control and care in order to maintain the flat geometry of the harness. Pulling the tape easily bunches the flat profile into a crumbled bundle. Further, the industry has developed a wide variety of clips which require taping to hold them onto the harness. Industry also has developed other ways to attach the clips to the flat harness. The newer attaching units, however, have their own set of problems. The additional components are more costly, both from a materials and labor standpoint. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,9187,261.
Utilizing flat wire harnesses or flat flexible cable (FFC) as a replacement for conventional automotive wire harnesses created a new problem of how to attached the wire harness to the vehicle cost effectively. A method was sought after that could secure multiple layers of FFC together and still function as retainer or clip that could be applied to the vehicle.